Prouder Than Proud

As you all know, Hannah has been living at home since May of 2012. She has been going to school full time and working part time and doing very well with this arrangement. Her grades have been excellent and she never misses work and she’s (mostly) saving money. It has not been without it’s challenges for me, I must admit. Her schedule is very, ummmm, fluid and we never really know when she will be home or when she will be coming home or leaving or . . . you get it, right?

One of the things that has made this summer more challenging than usual is that Hannah hasn’t been working her regular summer job at the collaborative. The reason for this is an excellent one, though: Hannah received an undergraduate research grant through her university and she has spent the summer conducting research on area collaboratives. Confused? Me, too, but here is what she’s been doing, explained in her own words:

“How Do Qualities of Community-Based Instruction for Persons With Severe Disabilities Present in Educational Collaboratives in Southeastern Massachusetts?”

The purpose of this project is to explore the presence of Community-Based­Instruction (CBI), a method that promotes the community as the classroom for students with severe special needs, among up to six educational collaboratives serving fifty-two school districts in Southeastern Massachusetts. Criteria described in the literature will be used to evaluate the CBI strategies employed by these programs. Program documentation, interview transcripts with program staff, and field observation notes will be collected and analyzed to gain a greater understanding of the application of CBI currently practiced among those programs. This will hopefully lead to greater awareness, implementation, andadvocacy of CBI to support all students with severe special needs.

Clear as mud, right? In plain English, Hannah’s project revolved around evaluating how successful these collaborative schools have been in preparing students with severe special needs to be part of a community — going to a grocery store, ordering lunch in a restaurant, things of that nature.

Last week, Hannah, along with the other recipients of the Adrian Tingsley Grant Program Grants, presented their findings.

She was very excited about her poster and happily explained it to all of us as well as to the various faculty members and benefactors who stopped and asked questions.

We all had fun posing with Hannah in front of her very colorful poster. And at least I could (mostly) understand hers. Some of the others? The ones in the fields of science and mathematics? I’m not sure they were even written in English. Just sayin.

I call this her teacher face. She’s very serious about all of this which is something that makes this mama very happy.

Isn’t it exciting to see young people so serious and enthusiastic about subjects close to their heart? It’s the sort of thing that makes me very optimistic about the future. Way to go, Hannah! (And Mom and Dad)

Ditto, the “awesome” comment and also the “I know what you mean about the fluid coming and going.” We are a family with several generations into special needs education, so Hannah’s topic interests me quite a bit.
Had the Fiber Fest on the calendar, but family events intervened as frequently happens. I was very disappointed since there were several vendors I had wished to patronize. How was it? The weather couldn’t have been better.

Beauty and brains. Hannah has the most amazing smile! Her project sounds so interesting and worthwhile. I had forgotten how convoluted academia speak can be, lucky you had a knowledgeable translator! Congratulations to a focused and amazing young woman!

Why, I remember her when she was just a cute little student at Central Elementary and look at her now! No wonder you’re proud of her! This is our first fall of no college tuition, and we are celebrating back-to-school this year by not moving anyone into a dorm either!

Please convey congratulations to Hannah. It sounds as if her work will be very meaningful to the Special Needs community in HER community – now how awesome is that?!!! So impressive that such a lovely young lady is making such an impressive impact in today’s world – she must have an incredibly role model for a Mom. Just sayin.